Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #150 - 04/10/06 at 12:47:39

Randy

Thanks again for all the pictures, and keep them coming! There never seem to be enough pictures when you are trying to figure out that one obscure detail you just can't seem to understand. Be sure to get some good ones of the front panel and how it fits and attaches to the compression chamber. I'm hoping all your pictures will lead me to what I did wrong with my SO.

Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #155 - 04/24/06 at 04:17:45

Howdy paulc,

Your demand has been duly noted ..... and acted on .....

I was at Mike's workshop Saturday from about 2:00 PM until midnight. A lot was accomplished. All that remains is to install the braces and "fins" in the lower part of the enclosures, some trim pieces, mounting the drivers and binding posts (Cardas copper) and the staining (or whatever it is that Mike has planned for the finish) ..... ???

We took a good number of photos, but were too tired to upload them to my website. Mike is supposed to bring the camera to work tomorrow (Monday) and I will get the photos on the forum.

It's hard to believe how bulky and hard to move these things are at this point of construction ..... and heavy. We were moving one of the cabinets after the driver enclosure was mounted. It was positioned with the heavy side pointing upwards. We both had a grip on it ..... and Mike decided to let go to reach for something. It caught me off guard and my eyeballs nearly hit the back side of my eyeglasses .....

It was painful to leave the shop with the Imperials this close to being functional. Mike plans to work on them some more this week. I'm not sure if they will be completed by this coming weekend .... if not, I'll be at the HornFest May 5-7, so it still might be the second week of May before they are in my listening room.

Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #182 - 04/25/06 at 13:18:08

Hi Simon,

On the grayscale plans that Steve sent us, there are some reference numbers for the outside dimensions of the two cutouts. Mike used those dimensions to make a rough "graph" on a wood template and drew the lines for the one side by hand. We cut out that half of it and then flipped it over and traced the line for the other half so that both sides would be identical.

Mike cut out the first one with a jigsaw and then clamped it to the copies, made the rough cuts with the jigsaw and then the finished cuts with a precision router bit ..... it was neat to watch .....

Zygi probably had a different method for doing this ..... and Mike thinks that Zygi's looks a little better. Of course, Mike is never satisfied with anything and I had to repeatedly tell him that I thought his version looked just wonderful .....

Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #185 - 04/25/06 at 14:43:09

Randy,

I'm out here, I've been following yours and Mike's progress everyday. Lets just say your going to have one fine set of Imperial SO's when you all are finished. Mike's doing a fantastic job by any woodworkers standards!!!!

My method might have been just a little bit of a variant from Mike's method, yet essentially the same. The jigsaw/pattern cutting method works well for all kinds of irregular shapes and you can get multiple pieces all exactly the same. What I did was take and make a circle with an 1/8" larger radius then the out side dia. of the driver. I then layed out the football shaped cut out on a piece of scrape as well as on the finial piece. I then take the piece I cut with the 1/8" larger radius cut it down so it will lay on my lines and pin nail the pieces on the scrape piece of wood and flush trimed them to shape. You've now made a template for the football. Place the template on the actual piece, trace the lines, jigsaw all the excess material away, clamp the template in place and flush trim the rest of the material away. From there out I use the actual piece to trace the lines and use it as the template for flush triming the rest of the pieces.

You can use the same method for straight cuts with lots of angles, such as the driver cabinet on the Imperials. It is also the inside flare of the horn and there are no 90 degree angles anywhere. Just lay out the lines as per the drawing. Jigsaw outside the lines (I don't like to leave more than an 1/8" outside the line) pin nail a 3" wide straight board right on the lines and flush trim right to the line. When you have it all flush trimmed you have a perfect pattern and can make all the rest with exacting percision.

When you have inside angles meeting each other, you will have the radius of the flush trim bit left in the inside corners. You can either saw/file/sand to the line, or use a roundover bit and round the edges of the wood to match the pattern, the latter is my preferred method. On the Imp's this is not necessary, as the inside cutouts are just for driver clearance.

Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #190 - 04/25/06 at 15:41:08

I just ran across a quote from Steve Deckert in the DecFest 2005 report .....

"While this concept is still settling, I should mention that later that evening they were hooked up in the same fashion with the Parker Audio 2 ohm speakers bringing the impedance down to 1.2 ohms nominal. The combo was then driven by a single SE84CS at 2.3 watts per channel and dropped everyone's jaw in the room - especially those who own an SE84CS. The sound was larger then realistically imaginable and the bass was so low and defined you could feel the concrete moving - all from a 2 watt SET."

Re: To say the least, the anticipation is buildingReply #192 - 04/25/06 at 20:03:59

Howdy Tim,

I do believe you're right .....

Mike mentioned something the other day that he thought was interesting ..... is there an uncanny resemblance between the slot on the SO Imperial and the Clone Trooper helmet from the Star Wars movie ..... ???

Is it possible that Steve had something to do with the production of Star Wars .....